Booba Barnes

{{Short description|American blues guitarist and vocalist (1936–1996)}} {{redirect|Roosevelt Barnes|the American football player|Roosevelt Barnes (American football)}} '''Roosevelt Melvin "Booba" Barnes''' (September 25, 1936 – April 2, 1996)<ref name=amg/> was an American Delta blues guitar player and vocalist. One commentator noted in 2003 that Barnes, R. L. Burnside, Big Jack Johnson, Paul "Wine" Jones and James "Super Chikan" Johnson were "present-day exponents of an edgier, electrified version of the raw, uncut Delta blues sound."<ref name="Music">{{cite book | first= Paul | last= Du Noyer | year= 2003 | title= The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music | edition= 1st | publisher= Flame Tree Publishing | location= Fulham, London | isbn= 1-904041-96-5 | page= 160}}</ref>

==Career== Born in Longwood, Washington County, Mississippi, United States,<ref name="Dead"/> Barnes got his start in 1960 as a member of the Swinging Gold Coasters, a local Mississippi blues outfit. He relocated to Chicago in 1964, where he played in bars and clubs, but returned to Mississippi in 1971 and continued to perform locally into the early 1980s.<ref name=amg/> In 1984, Barnes hooked up with Lil' Dave Thompson when the latter was aged 15, and the duo played on Mississippi's juke joint circuit.<ref>{{cite web|author=Steve Huey |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/dave-thompson-mn0000827276/biography |title=Dave Thompson | Biography |publisher=AllMusic |date= |access-date=2014-07-31}}</ref> Barnes opened a nightclub, the Playboy Club, in 1985, and played there with a backing group called the Playboys; they became regional blues favorites, and eventually signed to Rooster Blues, who released Barnes's debut effort in 1990.<ref name=amg/>

The album was hailed by Allmusic as "an instant modern classic",<ref>{{cite web|author=Thom Owens |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-heartbroken-man-mw0000675545 |title=The Heartbroken Man - Roosevelt "Booba" Barnes | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards |publisher=AllMusic |date= |access-date=2014-07-31}}</ref> and ''Guitar Player'' called Barnes "a wonderfully idiosyncratic guitar player and an extraordinary vocalist by any standard".<ref>Jas Obrecht of ''Guitar Player'' as quoted in Barnes' Allmusic biography.</ref> Barnes toured the U.S. and Europe following the album's release.<ref name=amg>Jim O'Neal and Stephen Thomas Erlewine, [{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p267/biography|pure_url=yes}} Roosevelt "Booba" Barnes] at Allmusic</ref>

Barnes's career was interrupted in the middle of the decade when he was diagnosed with lung cancer, and he died of the disease in April 1996 in Chicago, aged 59.<ref name=amg/><ref name="Dead">{{cite web|author=Doc Rock |url=http://thedeadrockstarsclub.com/1996.html |title=The Dead Rock Stars Club 1996 - 1997 |publisher=Thedeadrockstarsclub.com |date= |access-date=2014-07-31}}</ref>

==Discography== *''The Heartbroken Man'' (Rooster Blues, 1990)

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, Booba}} Category:1936 births Category:1996 deaths Category:American blues guitarists Category:American male guitarists Category:American blues singers Category:Singers from Mississippi Category:People from Washington County, Mississippi Category:Blues musicians from Mississippi Category:Deaths from lung cancer in Illinois Category:20th-century American guitarists Category:Guitarists from Mississippi Category:20th-century American male singers Category:20th-century American singers